In this folder you find all information concerning the IFAC Fellow and IFAC Major Awards for the 2023-2026 triennium.
Call for 2023-2026
IFAC Fellow Nominations
IFAC Fellow Nominations
Nomination and Reference form: IFAC Cloud
IFAC is seeking nominations for 2023-2026 IFAC Fellows. The IFAC Fellow award provides a distinction of excellence in the Federation and is conferred on a small number of outstanding scientists or engineers by the IFAC Council, based on the proposal of the Fellow Selection Committee. With the appointment as an IFAC Fellow, IFAC honors outstanding contributions with a high impact in the fields of interest of IFAC in the role as a Scientist, Engineer, Technical Leader or Educator. These contributions may be technical
publications, patents, control solutions, products, software, and leadership in research, development and education.
Any IFAC affiliate being control scientist or engineer can be nominated for the title of an IFAC Fellow, with the exception of current members of the IFAC Council, Fellow Search Committee and Fellow Selection Committee. Past involvement in IFAC activities, publications and events is desirable and an asset but not absolutely mandatory. For a list of IFAC Fellows elected so far, please go to the IFAC website at:
ifac-control.org/awards/ifac-fellows
publications, patents, control solutions, products, software, and leadership in research, development and education.
Any IFAC affiliate being control scientist or engineer can be nominated for the title of an IFAC Fellow, with the exception of current members of the IFAC Council, Fellow Search Committee and Fellow Selection Committee. Past involvement in IFAC activities, publications and events is desirable and an asset but not absolutely mandatory. For a list of IFAC Fellows elected so far, please go to the IFAC website at:
ifac-control.org/awards/ifac-fellows
IFAC Fellow candidates must be proposed by a separate Nominator and receive from 3 to 5 reference forms from Referees.
Nominators
Any IFAC Affiliate is eligible to serve as a Nominator with the exception of members of the IFAC Council, Fellow Search Committee or Fellow Selection Committee. The nominator is responsible for the information provided about thecandidate. The nominator is asked to read the Nominator Information, complete the Nomination Form according to the requirements given below, and inform the persons indicated as referees that they have been named as such.
If you plan to submit an IFAC Fellow Nomination, please find instructions on the IFAC website to
assist you in this nomination process. Strict ad-herence to procedure is essential; otherwise, a candidate may be placed at a serious disadvantage and possibly excluded from consideration this triennium.
Fellow Nominations need to be uploaded electronically through PaperCept by February 1, 2025.
References
Each nomination must be supported by at least three, but not more than five references from
IFAC affiliates being internationally reputed experts in the field who are aware of the candidate‘s contributions. These referees need not be IFAC Fellows themselves. Note that the choice of referees is important for the success of the candidate’s nomination. Members of the IFAC Council, Fellow Search Committee or the Fellow Selection Committee are not eligible to serve as referees.
Reference forms need to be uploaded electronically through PaperCept by March 1, 2025.
The announcement of the newly elected Fellows will be made shortly after the completion of the vote taken by the IFAC Council in July 2025. The new elected IFAC Fellows will be honored in a ceremony at the 2026 IFAC World Congress (scheduled to take place in Busan, Korea from 23-28 July 2026).
Call for Nominations for the
IFAC Major Awards
IFAC Major Awards
Nomination and Reference form: IFAC Cloud
The IFAC NMOs, the IFAC Technical Committee Chairs as well as other IFAC affiliates are invited
to nominate candidates for one or more of these awards. The nominations need to be uploaded electronically through PaperCept no later than February 15, 2025.
to nominate candidates for one or more of these awards. The nominations need to be uploaded electronically through PaperCept no later than February 15, 2025.
The nominations should in general contain a curriculum vitae of the candidate, a summary of his/her/their major contributions and a proposed citation. Each nomination must be supported by at least three, but no more than five references from IFAC affiliates being internationally reputed experts in the field who are aware of the candidate‘s contributions. Specific details for the awards are listed below. Nominations should be submitted as a single pdf file.
It is the nominator’s role to inform the people listed as referees to send in an reference form with an assessment of the candidate(s). The reference forms need to be uploaded through PaperCept by March 15, 2025.
For each of the Major Awards, a selection committee has been appointed. All awards will be presented by the IFAC President at the Opening Ceremony of the 2026 IFAC World Congress in July 2026 in Busan, Korea. Every IFAC affiliate can act as nominator or referee, with the exception of members of the corresponding Major Award Selection Committee, the Major Awards Search Committee, and members of the IFAC Council. Self-nominations are not allowed. It may be useful to consider the list of past winners on the IFAC website at ifac-control.org/awards
Please note that it is possible to resubmit a nomination that was made in the past. A more detailed description of the several Awards, including selection criteria, follows below.
GIORGIO QUAZZA MEDAL
(Created 1979)
This IFAC award recognizes lifetime achievements in science and engineering in any of the technical fields covered by IFAC. The contributions should be manifested in technical publications. A nominee should have served IFAC in some capacity, formally or informally. The selection criteria are:
- Quality of publications
- Impact of publications
- Engineering significance
- Service to IFAC
- International recognition
Nominations should contain a curriculum vitae of the candidate, a summary of his/her/their major contributions and an account of their impact, a proposed citation and the names of three to five referees.
NATHANIEL B. NICHOLS MEDAL
(Created 1996)
This IFAC award recognizes industrial leadership, outstanding contributions of an individual to design methods, software tools and instrumentation, or significant projects in major applications and advancement of control engineering. The award is given for contributions in any of the technical fields of IFAC. The contributions should be manifested in technical publications, patents or publicly-available reports documenting completed projects or developed products. The selection criteria are:
- Quality of publications
- Impact of publications
- Innovation level of patents
- Impact of patents
- Engineering significance of products and projects
- International recognition
MANFRED THOMA MEDAL
(Created 2015)
This is an IFAC award for early career achievements that recognizes outstanding contributions of a young researcher and/or engineer under the age of 40 to the field of systems and control in its widest sense. For the award to be given at the 2026 World Congress candidates are eligible that were born after January 1,
1986. (Age verification, such as passport copy may be requested.)
Candidates are assessed by their scientific and technical contributions to the field of systems and control.
The selection criteria are:
- Quality and impact of publications
- Engineering significance
- International recognition
Involvement in IFAC is not part of the criteria. Nominations should contain a curriculum vitae of the candidate, a summary of the major achievements in terms of the selection criteria above, a proposed citation and the names of three to five referees.
INDUSTRIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
(Created 2000)
The IFAC Industrial Achievement Award is given to an individual, or a team of individuals, who has made significant contributions to industrial applications of control in any of the technical fields covered by IFAC. The award can be given for a single achievement (an invention or the leadership of a major project) or
a record of achievements over a period of time. There is no requirement that the nominated candidates must have been involved in IFAC.
The selection criteria are:
- Inventions in the control area
- Engineering significance of products and projects
- Industrial leadership
- Promotion of control technology in industry
- Impact of patents
- International recognition
HIGH IMPACT PAPER AWARD
(Created 2009)
This award is to acknowledge the impact of a paper published in any of the official IFAC journals on the broad areas of automatic control theory and applications. At most two such awards will be made in any triennium. Eligible papers must have been published in any of the official IFAC Journals (Automatica,
Control Engineering Practice, Annual Reviews in Control, Journal of Process Control, Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, Mechatronics, Nonlinear Analysis: Hybrid Systems, Systems and Control). For the award(s) to be given at the 2026 Congress, only papers published within the time period from 1 January 1996 through 31 December 2017 are eligible.
Control Engineering Practice, Annual Reviews in Control, Journal of Process Control, Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, Mechatronics, Nonlinear Analysis: Hybrid Systems, Systems and Control). For the award(s) to be given at the 2026 Congress, only papers published within the time period from 1 January 1996 through 31 December 2017 are eligible.
The selection criteria are:
- Evidence of high number of citations, as obtainable from either (or both) the engineering databases: Thompson ISI’s Web of Science and Elsevier’s SCOPUS.
- Evidence that the work under consideration has been actually used by others in their research/professional activity.
- Opinions expressed by three references from internationally reputed experts in the field who are personally aware of the contributions of the nominated paper.
- A statement specifying the number of citations, as obtainable from either (or both) the engineering databases: Thompson ISI’s Web of Science and Elsevier’s SCOPUS;
- Excerpts of technical papers documenting work and progress made possible due to the prior contributions of the nominated paper. Papers (co)authored by one of the authors of the nominated paper cannot be used for this purpose.
- A description (if appropriate) of industrial achievements made possible due to the prior contributions of the nominated paper.
- The names of three to five internationally reputed experts that can serve as referees.